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beak hawk's-beard, weedy hawksbeard

Habit Annuals, biennials, or perennials, 3–120 cm (taproots slender to thick, caudices swollen).
Stems

1, erect to arcuate or decumbent (green or purple proximally), usually much branched, glabrate to hispid and/or tomentose, sometimes sparsely setose (setae black).

Leaves

basal and cauline;

petiolate (bases clasping);

blades oblanceolate to ovate, often runcinate, 10–35 × 2–8 cm, margins pinnately lobed to toothed (terminal lobes relatively large), apices obtuse or acute, faces usually hirsute (hairs sometimes only on veins) or glabrous (cauline sessile, bases auriculate, clasping, margins ± toothed).

Involucres

cylindro-campanulate (becoming turbinate or urceolate in fruit), 5–14 × 5–6 mm.

Florets

50–70;

corollas yellow (reddish abaxially), 6–15 mm.

Phyllaries

7–16, (reflexed at maturity) lanceolate, 10–12 mm, (margins green to yellowish), apices obtuse or acute (ciliate), abaxial faces tomentose and often stipitate-glandular, adaxial with fine, appressed hairs.

Calyculi

of 5–12, ovate to linear-lanceolate, glabrous bractlets 3–4 mm (reflexed in fruit, scarious).

Heads

10–20, in lax, corymbiform arrays.

Cypselae

(monomorphic or dimorphic) pale brown or yellowish, fusiform, 4–9 mm, outer wider with apices attenuate (not beaked), inner gradually tapered, beaked (beaks 2–5 mm, ± equal to bodies), ribs 10 (narrow);

pappi white (fine, soft), 3–6 mm.

2n

= 8, 16.

Crepis vesicaria

Phenology Flowering Feb–Oct.
Habitat Sandy clearings, hillsides
Elevation 0–300 m (0–1000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; CT; NC; NY; OR; PA; BC; Europe [Introduced in North America; introduced, South America]
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Native to the Mediterranean region of western Europe, Crepis vesicaria is recognized by its annual or biennial habit, pinnately lobed leaves, reflexed calyculi, tomentose and glandular phyllaries, and slender, long-beaked inner cypselae. It is polymorphic; subspecies are recognized in Europe. E. B. Babcock (1947) identified the North American plants as subsp. taraxaciflora (Thuiller) Thellung, which some Europeans (T. G. Tutin et al. 1964–1980, vol. 4) have listed as a synonym of subsp. haenseleri (Boissier ex de Candolle) P. D. Sell.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 19, p. 238.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Cichorieae > Crepis
Sibling taxa
C. acuminata, C. atribarba, C. bakeri, C. barbigera, C. biennis, C. bursifolia, C. capillaris, C. elegans, C. foetida, C. intermedia, C. modocensis, C. monticola, C. nana, C. nicaeënsis, C. occidentalis, C. pannonica, C. pleurocarpa, C. pulchra, C. rubra, C. runcinata, C. setosa, C. tectorum, C. zacintha
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 805. (1753)
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